PC Pro April 2022

Me of a month ago would be very disappointed with me of today. “You’ve fallen for the hype,” old me would say. “You’ve drunk so much Kool-Aid it’s pickled what’s left of your pathetic brain cells.” But that cynical and rather rude yester-me hadn’t been to this year’s CES (see p26), hadn’t wandered the halls of Eureka Park and seen the scattering of seeds that will become the metaverse. For yes, I’m a believer. Now, before you check to see if this month’s magazine has been sponsored by the corporate entity formerly known as Facebook, let me explain First of all, I don’t think we’re all going to be spending our lives living in a Ready Player One-like virtual reality. The metaverse – I wish I could think of a better word!…

Nik Rawlinson Still paying for a landline? Nik explains how much you could save by moving to VoIP, unearths the hidden benefits of switching and reveals the practical steps you need to take. See p42 Davey Winder Alongside his regular Real World Computing column on p118, Davey explains exactly what to do if an online attacker gets its hands on your business’s data. Discover your best response on p103 Dick Pountain A broken amplifier for his hi-fi, with no easy replacement to be found, prompts Dick to tread the line between digital and analogue with spectacular effect. Head to p20 to discover why Olivia Whitcroft If you aren’t baking data protection into the design of your new products, your customers may turn their noses up. Lawyer Olivia Whitcroft reveals the recipe for success from p116…

Apple and Google are exercising a “vice-like grip” over mobile devices, according to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which is investigating how two of tech’s biggest names have “too much control” over the two major mobile operating systems. The regulatory scrutiny could result in significant changes to how both app stores work. Options on the table include measures such as obliging the two companies to make it easier to switch between iOS and Android, and opening up in-app payments so users can use third-party payment platforms, instead of being forced to use Apple or Google Pay. One suggestion, buried deep in the report, even proposes that Apple could be obliged to make iMessage available on Android, so that it isn’t only iPhone users who can send more multimedia-rich messages to…

What do the two mobile giants have to say for themselves in response? Here are two short excerpts from their submission to the CMA. Apple: “Apple is aware that it has some vociferous (and well-resourced) detractors campaigning against it in the UK and elsewhere. These detractors appear to be given significant weight in the SoS [statement of scope] and in relation to the preliminary description of Apple’s business model and practices. Apple is confident that the CMA’s in-depth investigation will reveal how many of the statements from third parties repeated in the SoS are self-serving, misrepresent Apple’s business model and are not grounded in competition law.” Google: “We think the Market Study will show that Android has been a success for us and for competition. It has enabled a substantial increase in…

It wasn’t so long ago that BlackBerry was on top of the world. With famous adherents including Barack Obama and Kim Kardashian, for a time the company’s devices were not only an important part of doing business, but a status symbol too. Fast-forward to 2022, however, and the world is very different. It has now been seven years since the release of the last true BlackBerry OS device, and in early January the company announced that it was finally pulling the plug on supporting its devices. If you fire up your old phone, you should expect it to “no longer reliably function”. “I think it’s a little bit sad,” said Anton Boman, who worked on BlackBerry 10 (BB10), the final version of the company’s home-grown operating system. “There are very few players…

The blockchain, the core technology at the heart of the Web3 noise, is most famous as the backbone of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. It’s the name given to the ledger where transactions are recorded, so when you send or receive money, it is recorded on the blockchain, which acts like a database. Crucially, unlike a traditional database, the blockchain is not stored in any one place or is the property of any one institution. Instead, it is “distributed”, with anonymised transaction logs stored by other blockchain users. It’s a clever idea because, thanks to complex maths and a lot of computing power, it essentially creates a database you can trust is accurate out of thin air. If you want to verify money really was transferred, you don’t need to ask…